Let's call a spade a spade here, folks and admit that there have been better weekends of shows than this one. Hell, four of the would-be best shows of the weekend took place last night (Jonathan Richman, The Whigs/The Kooks, Ra Ra Riot/The Morning Benders/Walter Meego, and Mom/Voices & Organs/Florene)!

Oh well.

Still, there's some treasure to be found amongst the trash, so let's sift through it together, OK? OK, then.

And, now, onto the shows we haven't yet had the chance to hip you to...

Mount Righteous, New Science Projects, Parata Friday, Oct. 3, at J & J's Pizza in Denton This Gutterth production just might be the all-local highlight of the weekend, featuring the insane cheeriness of Mount Righteous' 11-piece acoustic marching band and the insane, um, insanity of New Science Projects' experimental, blues-influenced solo material. Can't say I know too much about the third band, Parata, except that the oddball indie rock found on the band's Myspace page is pretty interesting, if a little all over the place.

Deadman, The Come Latelys Friday, Oct. 3, at Hailey's in Denton Steven Collins' Deadman project is a little rootsy, a little Americana-ish, a little country-ish, a little poppy. But it's certainly pleasing to the ear, and can be pretty catchy at times--and certainly in the right environment. Not sure if that proper environment is this Hailey's gig, though. Tomorrow's show at Lola's, which also features Austin's similarly rootsy The Come Latelys, might be better suited for the sound. Both are CD release shows.

Zanzibar Snails, Vorvadoss, Swirve Saturday, Oct. 4 at Good Records This is kinda a CD release show, I guess, from Zanzibar Snails, the super out-there experimental group from Denton that features Michael Chamy, Nevada Hill and, this time around, Seth Sherman and Mike Maxwell. The disc being touted here is called Vanadium Dream, and it's a three-track effort, and that's literally all I know about it. I do, however, know that the Zanzibar Snails guys picked the other acts to share this early evening bill with them, so it makes sense that they booked dress-up oddballs Vorvadoss and experimental jazz act Swirve to the bill. Should be a weirdly entertaining affair.

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Fair to Midland, Lions, The Feds, Mothers Anthem, Loaded Moses, Dead Twins Saturday, Oct. 4, at Main Street Live Part deux of the Granada and Downtown Dallas' four-part music series is clearly the hard-rocking leg of the kinda-free fest (free admission should you get there before 5 p.m.), and features some of the area's most heavy hitting acts within the hard rock genre. Could be a good time, especially considering that this is an outdoor festival and, well, the weather as the afternoon gets going along, looks to be pretty good for Saturday at this point.

Henry Rollins Saturday, Oct. 4, at Lakewood Theater I guess we can put this in here, since Rollins rose to fame in Black Flag, right? No music at this gig, far as we know. Just spoken word from a man never at a loss for words. Should be interesting.

Anberlin, Straylight Run, There For Tomorrow Saturday, Oct. 4, at The Door If you were gonna go to this show, you probably already knew about it. If you're gonna go to this show and you didn't know about it yet, well, you clearly spend far less time on Myspace than most 16 year olds. I bet this show does pretty well, though, if only because Anberlin and Straylight Run are, I think, pretty popular among this set.

...like I said, kinda a slow weekend. But the good news, folks, is that things start picking up over the next couple of weeks. --Pete Freedman

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